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Usability issue #44
Description
* Pix version 1.6.2
* Distribution - Mint 18+
Pix is a really useful program but unfortunately is quite cumbersome to use if you need to quickly visually locate a photo within your library. At the moment, the only way to navigate through the folder structure of a photo library is by using the mouse to click on the next folder and the next folder and the next folder, etc...
It would be really helpful and much more user friendly if when the cursor focus is in the folder window (ie you have clicked one of the folders in the top-left window) to then be able to use the keyboard arrow keys (much like in a file manager like nemo) to quickly navigate around the folder structure of your photo library. And any photos that are in a folder that gets the current focus while you navigate around with the arrow keys would be displayed in the window on the right the same as it does now.
This change to be able to use the arrow keys to navigate the folder structure would make Pix’s behaviour more intuitive and consistent with other programs like nemo (and file explorer for ex-Windows users and Aperture for ex-Apple users). Perhaps it could be made an option in the preference menu, if you do not want to have the suggested behaviour as the normal one.
Steps to reproduce
- Click any folder in the top left windows
- Try to use the keyboard arrow keys to navigate around the folder structure.
Expected behaviour
- Click any folder in the top left window
- The keyboard arrow keys allow you to navigate through the folder structure much like any file manager.
Thank you for your consideration, Chris
Activity
mlopezgva commentedon Aug 27, 2021
really?
Nothing about this un 4 years?
All those new "x" programs have the same problem: they are "MOUSE ONLY" programs, not even "mouse friendly".
Pix, the scanner, only the editor can be used with the keyboard (but I expect them to force using the virtual keyboard with the mouse in a future version).
The program is easy enough, but you can't simply do ANYTHING aside zooming and rotating and "move to next" with the keyboard. It's a pity I have to bo gack to another program just because of all these keyboard hating.
TomK32 commentedon Sep 17, 2026
And nothing in the five years since.
So, would a patch to add a lot more keyboard short cuts (I miss on to move files) be welcome? The keyboard shortcuts window could also do with an update to have named tabs instead of 1,2,3,4 and to open on what the current context it. I think the default to open the keyboard shortcut window is
?, at least here on github.